When you're having fun

The last time I was at the gym before Christmas, one of the women in my Pump class came up to me and asked me when I had had my baby? - phrasing the question and using a tone of voice that indicated she thought he must be a brand-spanking newborn. This is a question I got a lot last April/May/even June, but she was the first one in six months to pose the question. This got me thinking, first, that I really have not been to the gym enough lately: she's a class regular, I'm a class regular, why did Liam have to hit the 8 month mark before we had this conversation? But after I thought about it for a while, I decided that I really can't blame her. Last year moved at warp speed for me - maybe it did for her too.

We spent Thursday afternoon over at Autum's house, trying to cram in some more quality playtime before Jeannine and Autum's first year together comes to a close. Jeannine goes back to work on January 25th, and Autum turns 1 a couple of weeks later. We spent a lot of time looking through Autum's photo album and agreeing that it seemed like just yesterday that we were wearing awful hospital gowns and letting the entire world view our crotches and really not caring because it hurt so darn much. I honestly remember Liam's birth day like it was yesterday. (Not the 23 hours leading up to it, mind you; I have likely blocked that out as some sort of biological reassurance that I will decide to have another kid someday.) I can tell you what the weather was like and what my doctor was wearing and what month-old issue of Us magazine, left behind by another patient, I read when I set Liam down in his bassinette because I'd heard that the nurses always laugh at first-time parents who never set the baby down, and I didn't want them to laugh at me - even though I was dying to pick him up and look at him some more. Most of the time, I can't remember people I met yesterday, or what the difference between DP and BT customers is at work even though it's been explained to me ten times (going back is going to be a huge learning curve all over again). That I can remember so many details about a single, sleep-deprived day from almost a year ago both astounds me and makes me very grateful. And, it makes it feel like it was yesterday.

Right now I am starting to think about Liam's birthday, which will be here all too soon. I'd like to have a party, probably something very, very small and very, very simple, but with a cake and some balloons and a theme that I already have in mind. It's still three months away, but time flies, and it will be here before I know it.